Spain’s Startup Funding Is Climbing, and It Backs Alejandro Betancourt López’s Bet

Money is pouring into Spanish startups at a pace the country hasn’t seen before, and the trend gives useful context for the bets placed by Alejandro Betancourt López. Start with the raw figure.

Investment in Spanish startups grew 15% over the first nine months of 2025, reaching €2.6 billion across 288 rounds, according to the Bankinter Innovation Foundation. Barcelona led with €1.1 billion across 108 deals. Madrid followed with €717 million, and venture capital took part in 71% of every round.

Bigger Checks, More Borders Crossed

Shape matters as much as sum. Series A rounds stayed the most common at 86 deals. Series C financings, the larger checks that back maturing firms, jumped 77% over the prior year. Clearly, bigger sums were being written for companies well past their first few seasons.

Foreign cash showed up in force too. Rounds mixing Spanish and international investors nearly tripled and made up 48% of all money invested, which tells you funds abroad increasingly see Spanish companies as worth the trip. Software pulled the most capital at €527 million, ahead of travel and tourism at €346 million, the kind of momentum tracked at smbceo.com.

Exits That Prove the Model

Selling well got easier in the same stretch. Spain logged 49 startup exits across the nine months, up 15% year on year, topped by the €2.84 billion public listing of the travel group Hotelbeds.

Two more sales filled out the picture. The legal-data platform Vlex went for €850 million and the marketplace Wallapop for €377 million, and each deal handed earlier backers a clean way out. Spain’s tech scene has now passed 10,000 companies and adds roughly €19.4 billion to the economy, a base deep enough to keep turning out firms at scale for investors like Alejandro Betancourt López.